Unsung playoff heroes dotted NHL's early years

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler will write a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, brand of humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
Today, he takes a look back at his favorite unheralded heroes of the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the early decades of the NHL.

Finding a hero in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is easy: Look up the Conn Smythe Trophy and you'll see the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby,
Billy Smith
and
Wayne Gretzky
, to name a few.
But behind the headliners there often have been foot soldiers who became key figures in helping their teams to expected victories
Here are my seven favorites from the early decades of the NHL (in chronological order):

Joe Miller

Lorne Chabot was the goalie for the New York Rangers when they began the best-of-5 1928 Cup Final against the Montreal Maroons. But in Game 2, Chabot took a puck in the face and was injured seriously enough that he had to be hospitalized. Rangers general manager-coach Lester Patrick put on Chabot's gear and played well enough to enable New York to tie the series with a 2-1 overtime win.
But what about Game 3? Chabot was unavailable, and the Maroons refused to allow the Rangers to dress any NHL goaltender except Joe Miller, regarded as the League's worst. Miller was available because he had been put on waivers by the New York Americans. At the time of the Final, he was home in Ottawa.
With Miller in goal, the Rangers lost 2-0 in Game 3 at the Forum, putting the Maroons one win away from a championship. But Miller was flawless in Game 4, a 1-0 series-tying victory.
In the fifth and deciding game, Miller kept the Maroons off the scoreboard through the first 55 minutes while his new teammates built a 2-0 lead. He allowed a late goal but kept Montreal off the scoreboard the rest of the way for a 2-1 win, giving the Rangers a championship in their second season in the NHL.
Miller was then dropped by the Rangers. He played two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and one with the Philadelphia Quakers before leaving the NHL with a record of 28-89 and 16 ties. He was forgotten almost as fast as he had become a playoff hero.

Andy Aitkenhead

A little luck never hurt any goalie, but in the case of Aitkenhead, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, a lot of luck helped a virtual unknown win the Stanley Cup.
After moving with his parents from Scotland to Canada, Aitkenhead became a decent enough goalie during the early years of the Great Depression. But nobody talked him up as a future NHL player; certainly not the Rangers, who had traded Chabot to the Toronto Maple Leafs and replaced him with another veteran, John Ross Roach, who seemed capable of helping New York to a second Cup.
For four years, Roach tried but failed. Finally, Madison Square Garden management demanded a goaltending change, leaving Patrick with no choice but to trade Roach to the Detroit Red Wings.
Patrick then placed his faith in a rookie whose only claim to fame was wearing a tweed cap when he guarded the crease. Otherwise, there was no reason to believe that Aitkenhead was the answer to New York's needs.
But the blond, blue-eyed goalie proved to be better than anyone could have hoped. The Rangers finished third in the American Division at 23-17-8. Aitkenhead was even better in the playoffs, helping the Rangers defeat the Montreal Canadiens and the Red Wings to reach the Cup Final against Toronto.
In his Stanley Cup Final debut at Madison Square Garden on April 4, 1933, Aitkenhead helped the Rangers to a 5-1 win against the defending champion Maple Leafs. New York went on to win the best-of-5 series in four games, with Aitkenhead allowing all of five goals.
But winning the Cup proved to be a next-to-last hurrah for Aitkenhead. In 1934, the Rangers were eliminated by the Montreal Maroons in the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals, and during the 1934-35 season, he was replaced by Dave Kerr. He never played in the NHL again.

Alfie Moore

The Chicago Black Hawks (spelled with two words then) were aiming for their second Stanley Cup in the spring of 1938. After a 14-25-9 regular season, they won two playoff rounds to advance to the Cup Final. Chicago had been carried during the playoffs by its U.S.-born goalie, Mike Karakas, who had won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie two years earlier.
Their opponent in the Cup Final was the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had finished first in the Canadian Division. Young stars such as goalie Turk Broda and center Syl Apps made them heavy favorites to defeat the Black Hawks, even with a healthy Karakas.
But on the morning of the series opener, April 5, 1938, it was learned that Karakas had sustained a broken big toe. Even worse, the toe had swelled so much that Karakas couldn't fit his injured foot into his goalie skates. Suddenly, the Black Hawks were desperate need of a goalie.
When Chicago general manager Bill Tobin asked the Maple Leafs if he could sign an NHL goalie -- there were several in the area for the Final - he received an emphatic thumbs-down. Tobin then ordered his scouts to find a goalie, any goalie, post haste.
As luck would have it, Moore, a 34-year-old who had spent most of his career in the minor leagues, has been spending a leisurely day in his native Toronto. Moore's NHL experience consisted of going 7-11-0 with a 3.49 goals-against average for the New York Americans in 1936-37, earning a return to the minors for 1937-38.
In his wildest dreams, Moore never could have imagined he'd be starring in the opening game of the Cup Final that night.
But a Chicago birddog located Moore, signed him to a one-game contract and hustled him to Maple Leaf Gardens for Game 1. Moore outplayed Broda, and Chicago won 3-1.
However, when Tobin asked to sign Moore for Game 2, the Maple Leafs urged NHL President Frank Calder to deny the request, which he did.
The Blackhawks tried another minor leaguer, Paul Goodman, who lost 5-1 in Game 2. But by Game 3, Karakas was wearing a special steel-toed boot that enabled him to play. With their starter back in goal, Chicago won 2-1 and 4-1 to close out the best-of-5 series and win the Cup for the second time.
And Moore? He had two brief stints with the New York Americans but spent the rest of his career in the minors.

Bob Goldham

When the 1942 Stanley Cup Final between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings began, Toronto's best defenseman was veteran Bucko McDonald. But after Detroit won the first three games, Maple Leafs coach Hap Day realized that McDonald had become too slow to keep pace with the quicker Red Wings.
"Bucko has been no help to us," Day explained. With the series on the line and his team facing what seemed to be insurmountable odds, Day turned to Goldham, pairing him with Ernie Dickens in an all-rookie duo.
Prior to Game 4, Goldham and Dickens sat at their dressing room stalls, surrounded by veterans, as Day read a letter from a little girl in Toronto. In his book, "Bob Goldham, Outside The Goal Crease," author Jim Amodeo recalls how Goldham was transfixed as Doris Klein wrote that she would be ashamed to go to school the next day if the Maple Leafs lost four straight.
With Goldham's help, the Maple Leafs won Game 4. Goldham then scored a goal in Game 5, a 9-3 victory. He got another in Game 6, scoring on a third-period breakaway in a 3-0 series-tying victory. "On the Leafs' second goal," Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Foster Hewitt said, "Goldham handled the breakaway like a veteran."
That set the stage for Game 7 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Prior to the showdown, the 19-year-old sounded like a 10-year veteran. "I had no nerves at all," he recalled in the book. "I looked forward to the game."
With the score tied near the midway point of the third period, Goldham combined with Bob Davidson to set up Pete Langelle for the Cup-winning goal at 9:48. The Maple Leafs won 3-1 to complete what remains the most astonishing comeback in a Stanley Cup Final, with Goldham as one of the chief supporting actors.

Pete Babando

The Boston Bruins began rebuilding their farm system after World War II with the accent on their Eastern Amateur Hockey League farm team, the Boston Olympics. Among the players developed there was Babando, a left wing born in Braeburn, Pennsylvania.
After scoring 23 and 19 goals in his first two NHL seasons, Babando was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on Aug. 16, 1949. Despite being surrounded by stars such as Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe, Babando failed to produce and was reduced to third-line duty.
But a serious injury to Howe in Game 1 in their Stanley Cup Semifinal series against the Toronto Maple Leafs forced the Red Wings to alter their offense. That meant more ice time for Babando, though without significant results.
However, the Red Wings survived a turbulent series against Toronto by winning Game 7 in double overtime, putting them into the Final against the New York Rangers, who had upset the Montreal Canadiens in the other semifinal.
The Rangers actually led the series 3-2 and had a chance to bring the Cup back to New York when they took a 2-0 lead in the first period. But Detroit rallied for a 4-3 win, setting up Game 7 at Olympia Stadium on April 23, 1950.
New York again took an early two-goal lead before power-play goals by Babando and Sid Abel tied the game 2-2. Rangers center Buddy O'Connor and Detroit forward Jim McFadden each scored before the second period ended to make it 3-3.
Each team had chances during the scoreless third period and the first overtime. With nearly 8 ½ minutes gone in the second overtime, center George Gee won a face-off in the New York zone and slid the puck to Babando, whose quick, screened shot beat New York goalie Chuck Rayner to give the Red Wings the Cup.
It was Babando's last act for the Red Wings, who traded him to Chicago during the summer.

Pentti Lund

Today's NHL is sprinkled liberally with Finland-born talent, but such was not the case in the immediate post-World War II years. One exception was Lund, a forward who emigrated to Canada and learned his hockey in the twin cities of Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario.
He learned the North American game well, reaching the NHL with the New York Rangers in the fall of 1948. He played well enough to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year although the Rangers missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Rangers made it to the playoffs in 1949-50, ending up fourth in the six-team League at 28-31-11, 10 points behind the team they would meet in the first round, the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal's biggest star, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, was in the prime of his career and supported by a cast of future Hall of Famers, making the Canadiens heavy favorites to win the series.
Rangers coach Lynn Patrick figured the only way to defuse Montreal was by muzzling Richard with one of his determined checking forwards. Although Lund had suffered through a sophomore slump, he was selected for the job.
"I was surprised," Lund told me after he had become sports editor of the Fort William Daily Times Journal newspaper following his retirement. "I'd scored 25 fewer goals than the Rocket that year. I wasn't close to being in his class."
But Lund did a masterful job on Richard, limiting him to one goal during the five-game series. Lund scored five goals to help the Rangers win the first three games and knock out starting goalie Bill Durnan.
Gerry McNeil replaced Durnan and managed one overtime win before the Rangers won Game 5 to close out the series. The man who was supposed to prevent Montreal's biggest star from scoring turned out to be the scoring star himself. Lund ended up leading all playoff scorers with six goals and 11 points, though the Rangers came up one win short in the Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings.

Jack McIntyre

Sometimes it takes just one goal to turn a fourth-liner into a hero.
In 1953, that hero was John Archibald (Jack) McIntyre of Brussels, Ontario, a left wing who Boston Bruins scouts once touted as a potential NHL star. I saw McIntyre play several games at Madison Square Garden, where he performed with the Boston Olympics in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League.
McIntyre was 19 when he took the ice with the Bruins for one game in 1949-50. He made the big club for good in 1951-52. But he never became a star, and he didn't appear to be any kind of threat when the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings played the Bruins in the 1953 Stanley Cup Semifinals.
The Red Wings were big favorites. They had finished 21 points ahead of Boston with an offense led by Gordie Howe, who finished first in the NHL with 49 goals and 95 points. Boston's top scorer, Fleming Mackell, finished with 44 points.
The series opened with a 7-0 Detroit victory on March 24, 1953. But the Bruins stunned the crowd at Olympia Stadium two nights later with a 5-3 win, setting the stage for a momentous role reversal.
On March 29, the series moved to Boston Garden for Game 3 and after three periods the score was tied 1-1.
With less than eight minutes remaining in the first overtime, McIntyre was guarded by Bob Goldham, Detroit's best defensive defenseman. There seemed no way McIntyre could score.
"I thought I had him well-protected," Goldham said. "When he let the shot go, I figured that it was a million-to-one shot. I'm sure he didn't have any idea where the shot was going. I had him blocked off, so he couldn't see the net. I probably had [goalie Terry] Sawchuk's view cut off too, and that's why Terry didn't see the puck in time."
The screened shot beat Sawchuk for a 2-1 Boston win and a 2-1 series lead.
McIntyre scored two more goals in Game 4, a 6-2 win for the Bruins. Boston went on to eliminate the Red Wings in six games, thanks to McIntyre's two finest hours. He played 10 seasons in the NHL during a 22-year career but never came remotely close to matching his 1953 playoff heroic